The Untold Chronicles of Jonah Carry the Unbeliever
by BornAsTheSeventhMonthDies
Summary: The story of Castor and Pollux, the sons of Dionysus, hasn't been told. That mistake ends now. This is the story of how they got to camp. But...they weren't alone. Part of my Jake Universe.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! Yeah, I know, I'm doing my own thing and ignoring the tips from other people. But WHO CARES! Anyway, if you're wondering exactly** ** _why_** **I'm doing this and not the three other things I should be, I had this idea. A stroke of inspiration, if you will. And this was:**

 **What about a story about Castor and/or Pollux?**

 **I mean, think about it. These guys are the absolute** ** _least_** **important supporting characters. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that through both PJO and HoO, their combined word count was something like three. Maybe less. Nobody's done a story of them, as far as I know, but think about it:**

 **a) They're children of** ** _Mr. D._** **The number-one most hated god besides Hera! (At least, I think so.)**

 **b) They have cool powers, I'm sure. Madness, grape vines, plant growing abilities, dolphin telekinesis, the works! And:**

 **c) They have no back story. Writers can go** ** _mad_** **! Anything you want to do, you can! There're no restrictions** ** _at all_** **since Uncle Rick didn't tell their story!**

 **I could do anything! What if they got no godly assistance? What if they were young? What if their mother died? What if they didn't even have a** ** _satyr_** **?**

 **Then after this stroke of genius, I had the idea. The idea that sparked this.**

 **What if they weren't alone?**

* * *

 **The Untold Chronicles of Jonah Carry the Unbeliever**

This is the story of Castor and Pollux Vining. They were sons of Dionysus. They were great. They were heroes. And when they died, they were placed in Elysium.

But every story has another side. Every play has a backstage. And every hero has a partner.

Heracles had his boy. Theseus had his pilot. Odysseus had Eurylochus.

And the twin sons of the god of madness had me.

These are the untold chronicles of Jonah Carry, the unbeliever.

The madness began on a simple summer day. Castor and Pollux had invited their school friends to their house for a birthday party. A double birthday party, as it were.

I was there. Jonah Carry was in the room. So were a dozen mortals whose lives and names are unimportant in the great tapestry the Fates weave.

As the twins opened their presents, the sky began to darken. This was unimportant to twenty-one people in the room. But to Castor, Pollux, and me, the darkening marked a new chapter in out lives.

As the guests left, the first raindrops started to fall. The twins' mother glanced out of the window. "Alright, Jonah," she said. "It's time to go home now, I think. You don't want to get caught in the rain. I'll drive you."

"No, that's alright," I said. "My dad'll be here any minute."

She looked at the sky nervously. "Jonah, I really think you might—"

Whatever words she was about to say stopped. A purple glow appeared in the livingroom.

A man appeared. He had black hair and purple eyes, just like the twins. He was wearing a business suit and his hair was combed, but there was that feeling like he had gotten nice hurriedly and forgotten something or other. His eyes were bloodshot and crazy.

"Hello, Juliet, my dear," he said. "How've you been?"

Just then, the twins' father came into the room and froze when he saw the mysterious man. "Who are you!" he yelled. "Get out of my house!"

"Shut up, mortal," the man said, irritably. "I'm here to pick up the boys. So let me do my job and let me do it in peace."

Mr. Lystre's mouth opened and shut, opened and shut, before he finally said, "Did you just – did you just tell me to shut up in my own house? I don't know who the hell you think you are, but you can't—"

Juliet cut him off. "Jacob," she said warningly. "Don't you swear in front of my children."

He gasped some more. The stranger ignored him and turned to Castor and Pollux. "Hello, boys," he said. "I'm your father."

The gods have never been known for their tact. It elicited three different responses from the members of the room: Juliet frowned and shook her head, Mr. Lystre started to turn a shade usually associated with tomatoes, and Castor, Pollux, and I just gaped in astonishment.

Mr. Lystre recovered first. "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" he roared, furious.

The stranger snapped his fingers and Mr. Lystre froze in place. "Now, boys," he said again. "I'm a god, my name's Dionysus, and you're coming with me to Camp Half-Blood. Got it?"

No sound. He rolled his eyes. "Look, I'm on a very tight schedule, so just get up and we'll leave."

Castor said, hesitantly, "Leave? Go where?" We were only ten. It was understandable that we were confused.

But this didn't seem to connect with Dionysus. He groaned. "Come on, didn't you hear a word I just said?"

"I heard leave," Pollux piped up helpfully.

"Just _stand up_ ," Dionysus snapped. "Now."

This was a fairly simple command. They stood up.

"Good, now take my arm, and we'll…"

Juliet interrupted him. "I don't know where you think you're going, Dionysus, but my sons are getting a full explanation or I'll know the reason why."

"The reason why, woman," Dionysus began, but was again interrupted.

"Oh, woman, is it?" She looked very angry. "Just knock me up and take my kids and I'm woman?"

"Now, listen, Juliet," Dionysus tried to defend himself.

"No, _you_ listen! These kids didn't understand a word you just said…" – "except leave," Pollux repeated – "so you tell them what's going on right now!"

"There's no time!" Dionysus snapped. "Council meets in four minutes. I just have time to drop them off and then…"

"Well, then, you can pick them up tomorrow," Juliet said. "And I'll explain what's going on."

"But…the monsters!"

"If they've waited for ten years, another day won't hurt," Juliet declared. Dionysus threw his hands up.

"Fine. But I'm taking them tomorrow at noon."

He disappeared in a flash of light. A single index card fluttered through the air. Juliet caught it.

 _The other kid is a son of Hermes_ , it read.

"Don't worry, guys," Mrs. Lystre said. "We'll be fine."

If only she'd known how wrong she was.

* * *

 **And wrap! Alright, ladies and gents. Exit to the right, please.**

 **What's that? I built up this hype and now I leave you after a few hundred words? The combined ANs are almost as long as the story itself? You wish I would just give you a decent sized story for once?**

 **Well, the story's in my head. It's in the world. It's just not on my laptop…**

 **So think of this as a preview. A teaser trailer. An** ** _amuse bouche,_** **if you will. Because the chronicles aren't over. Neither is the madness. And Jonah and the twins…well, let's just say they've got their store of tricks 'n' troubles. And they come to you on a deadline of…**

 **The sixth! Of October! (American time, ladies and gents. Western.) And I guarantee you that the next chapter will be far more entertaining, far longer, and have far more desperation, debacle, and derring-do than this one.**

 **Farewell!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone! Here's the next chappie. R &R!**

In an hour, Mrs. Lystre had explained everything to us. The Greek gods, monsters, demigods, Camp, and our godly parents.

But I didn't believe a word of it. The Greek myths weren't true, I knew that. The monsters were physically impossible. The gods didn't exist.

My father was Hermes, she'd told me. Well, I knew my father had died in a car accident. I'd even seen a picture or two of him. He was no Greek god.

I didn't go home that day. My mom didn't call us or come to the house; Mrs. Lystre said not to worry, they'd figured everything out before. But I noticed her looking worriedly out of the windows and watching the phone a few times.

It wasn't so bad. A rainy day, so we just stayed inside, played a game or two, watched TV.

And then at five thirty-two in the afternoon, everything went wrong.

We heard a roar from outside. Mrs. Lystre ran to the window. Outside, on the front lawn, was a…I don't know. It seemed like…nothing…a big truck…? I couldn't see very clearly through the rain.

"A hydra," Mrs. Lystre muttered. "Dionysus, help me."

She ran into the den and pulled a cord. Metal cage walls slammed down over the windows. Something that looked like a turret gun flipped out of the ground outside. It blasted the truck three times…with water.

The thing flipped over, then righted itself again. Now it was clearly a truck. Mrs. Lystre grabbed the twins and ran through the back door, yelling for me to follow.

"Listen," she said. "I'm gonna try to hold off the hydra for a few more minutes. You go that way—" she pointed to the street next to the house – "and try to find a satyr."

"A what?" Castor asked.

"A satyr. Remember? The goat people?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Find the Bacchanals! Quickly! Go!"

From the front of the house, the hydra roared and we heard a crash, followed by an explosion of water.

We took off running.

Mrs. Lystre ran back inside. We heard her yelling and the hydra roaring.

We got halfway down the street, away from the house, when it went up in a column of fire. Everything was torn apart by the explosion. Pieces of flaming rubble went everywhere. The whatever-it-was – and Mrs. Lystre – were gone.

* * *

We ran. And ran. For at least a mile. Castor and Pollux were crying silently, tears streaming down their faces. I was watching for someone to help us.

I saw a person walking their dog. I started to go up to them, but Pollux grabbed my sleeve and pulled me back. "No, Jonah," he said. "Remember, my mom said to find a satyr?"

"But…but they're not real," I said. "None of this is real, Pollux. Your house burned down, yeah, but the Greek myths were false."

"No," he said. "They're _real_. Didn't you see that monster? The hider or whatever mom said?"

I shook my head. "Listen, Pollux—"

"No, you listen. We're finding a satyr. My mom is gone, Jonah. Dead. We're finding the satyr."

The lady walking their dog came up to us. "Hello, boys," she said. "Can I help you?"

"No, that's fine," Pollux said, at the same time that I said, "Yes, please."

"Well," she said, smiling. "You seem to be undecided. What did you need, honey?"

The dog growled.

"Sorry," she said, still smiling at us. "The poor thing's in a bit of a bad mood, aren't you, sonny?"

"Is that his name?" Castor asked.

She shrugged. "Sometimes."

Okay. That makes sense. Anyway, I told her, "Our house just got burned down by a car accident. We need help."

"Oh," she said. "That's…terrible…"

The dog barked. Once. Loudly.

"Hush, sonny," she said. "Not in the middle of the street."

I attempted a smile, but I don't think it came out right. "Heh. Well, um, ma'am, would you be so kind as to call 911 and we'll tell them where the fire—"

"Why, certainly," she said. "I'll call."

She took a phone out of her pocket. "Hello," she said. "Hey, we have a son of Hermes and two Dionysus…what?…oh, yeah, definitely…number seven didn't do the job…sure, I'll…what?…yeah…"

I glanced at Castor. This was not a fire call. I started to back away. She held up her hand. "Wait just a minute, boys," she said.

We weren't convinced. We started to run.

She laughed behind us. "Run, half-bloods," she jeered. "We're gonna find you, and there's nothing you can do about it. Go to Hades!"

She made no move to attack us, but her laughter rang in our ears as we ran on down the street.

* * *

We stopped at a 7-11. No psycho would attack us in here, right?

Wrong.

The guy behind the counter was playing what sounded like Flappy Bird on his phone when we walked in. We walked up to the counter. "Excuse me?" I said.

One second. Two seconds. The little sound of the bird hitting a pipe, then he looked up. "Huh? Yeah?"

"There was an accident at our house. The place burned down. Call 911." I said. Simple, right?

He stared at me for a few seconds. Then he grunted. "Funny, kid. Real crackup. Now scram."

"I'm serious!" I protested. "It's gone!"

Castor nodded. "The whole place exploded. A monster with seven heads blew it up."

Great. Now he would totally believe us.

"Go away, kids," he grumbled, and returned to his video game.

Then the glass front window of the store smashed to pieces, and a guy with armor on and a sword in hand leaped through.

The cashier yelped and jumped a foot. His phone dropped, unnoticed, out of his hands, smashing on the ground. The guy who'd jumped through the window nodded to us, then spun around to face the window again.

A huge man, at least eight feet tall, muscular and hairy, lumbered in over the shattered glass. He roared and swatted at the guy.

He rolled backwards and came up next to us. "Hello, guys, I'm Mark," he said. "Get down."

The huge guy swung a fist. We three kids went flat on our backs. Mark crouched and jumped up again, stabbing the guy in the hand. He roared again and backed up a few steps.

Mark turned back to us. "Hey. You guys are Castor, Pollux, and _oof_ …" – he jabbed back at the giant man – "Jonah, right?"

We nodded. He pulled us to our feet and pointed to the back of the shop. "Stay back there," he said. "Lemme finish off this Cyclops and we'll find the ram."

As when Dionysus had 'briefed' us, I understood about a quarter of what he'd just said. That was: get to the back. And my own personal motto is never disagree with the guy with the sword.

We ran to the back of the shop. The huge guy swung again. Mark blocked the punch with his sword, then jumped in close and thrust through the man's chest.

He dissolved into a pile of dust.

The cashier, who'd been cowering behind the desk, tried to take charge. "Hey, you," he said. "You can't just come in here and break up my place like that! Who do you think you are?"

"Mark Bottel," Mark said. "Son of Dionysus. And I can do whatever the hell I want. I just saved your life, you know that, mortal? So don't you tell me what to do."

The guy glared at Mark. "Get out of here right now. I'm pressing charges against you; I'm calling the cops. I'm—"

Mark punched him in the face. He went over like a rag doll. "You're taking a nap," Mark finished for him.

"Come on, guys," he said. "Let's meet the ram."

* * *

It was a very nice ram. It had bright golden fur…hair…fleece, huge curling horns, and

"This is the famous ram that carried the Golden Fleece," Mark said. "We're gonna take him to Camp and you guys'll finally be safe."

That sounded great. Except, like I said, I didn't believe in any of this stuff. It seemed to me that there was a reasonable excuse for everything that'd happened. The truck smashed into the twins' house; the lady on the street was insane and a psycho killer or something; the huge guy was a huge guy that had attacked Mark.

Sure, there was a ram, but there were millions of rams in the world.

"Okay," Mark said. "Let's go. Get on!"

He hoisted Castor and Pollux onto the ram. But when he reached for me, I stepped back.

"No way am I riding that thing," I said.

The ram grunted and scraped his hooves on the ground.

"No, no, he doesn't mean it," Mark said to the ram. "He's just kidding. Right, Jonah?"

"Sure," I said weakly. "Whatever."

"Great," Mark said, grinning hugely. "Then here we go."

He swung me onto the huge animal's back. Then he jumped up just behind the head.

"And, you can go, bud," he said. The ram took off.

Now, there's a good explanation for this too, but it seemed to me that the animal was going way faster than a normal animal should have been able to go. Each step seemed to go miles.

We were going along fine for about half an hour. Mark was explaining to us about Camp Half-Blood, which I assumed was a summer camp. It seemed pretty cool, but I needed to get back to my parents. But whenever I tried telling him this (every minute), he would just laugh and say, "Your mom knows, Jonie."

Then we hit trouble.

As we were going across an unoccupied highway, a bowstring twanged. I knew the sound.

An arrow shot past Mark's ear, right over the ram's head. Another bowstring twanged. The arrow hit the ground right in front of the ram.

Mark whirled on the ram's back. "They chased us from the store!" he yelled.

He snapped his fingers. A bow shot through the air. He caught it.

"How…How did you do that?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No time."

An arrow appeared, nocked on the string. He pulled it back and the arrow shot away.

I watched it go. As it was in midair, a man jumped up from a bush on the side of he highway, bow and arrow ready. Mark's shot hit him in the forehead, killing him instantly. But again, instead of leaving a body, the man turned into a pile of dust.

"Who was that?" I asked him.

"Actaeon," he answered. "A super fast reformer; you'll definitely see him again. Maybe even on this trip."

I didn't understand any of that.

Mark fired off another arrow, hitting a woman in the head.

"Who was that?" I yelled.

"A Scythian Dracaena," he said. "One of the more common monsters you'll see."

The bow disappeared. He patted the ram on the head. "Keep going, bud, we're almost there."

Famous last words. An arrow shot through the air. I watched it, almost in slow motion, somehow knowing where it would hit.

It sunk into Mark's shoulder.

He screamed, and tipped off the animal, clutching his arm. I saw him tumble down a little incline we'd just passed over, and lay motionless at the bottom. But in another second, he was out of view.

"Stop!" I yelled, pounding on the ram's shoulder. "Mark fell off!"

The ram snorted, and, if anything, sped up.

Castor grabbed my arm. "Jonah, wait," he said. "Look."

I followed his pointing arm. Far out in the distance, ahead of us, was a huge, long line of dark figures. They seemed like…people holding weapons? They were all strange shapes.

As we got closer, I could see that they were charging straight at us. There were at least fifty of them.

"That's a lot of monsters," Pollux said.

"Monsters? Listen, guys, none of this is true! The monsters aren't real! These are…I don't know, a gang or something, and they—"

"A gang with swords?" Castor interrupted me.

It was true. They were all holding swords, or spears, or knives, or bows and arrows.

"Well, maybe they're with a ren fair, or something," I faltered.

Then the closest archer shot an arrow.

"Or maybe not," Pollux said.

The ram sped up. But not around. No, he went straight through the gang. They scattered, some getting trampled, and the golden ram kept going.

But an archer fired an arrow. The ram swerved, but another archer shot.

Three more arrows shot through the air.

The ram tried to dodge them, but an arrow hit it in the leg.

The ram stumbled and fell. The gang roared together and came running toward us.

"No, no," I said, patting and poking the wounded animal. "Come on, get up."

But it didn't move. Another arrow sang through the air. Hitting the ram in the chest.

Killing it.

It dissolved into dust. All that was left was the thing's skin, or fleece. It glittered, bright in the sun, but it couldn't help us now.

The first of the gang came up to us. They were huge, four of them, at least ten feet tall. The one in the lead laughed.

"Demigods? Sons of wine god? And…medicine. Pah! Dinner!"

He grabbed the Fleece. He raised his arm to smash us.

But then he stopped. "This…sheep skin. Golden sheep skin. Hmmm…"

Another one drew back his fist. But the one holding the fleece grabbed his arm and flung him backwards, plowing an opening through the advancing gang.

He examined the golden Fleece closer. "Gold! Ho ho! Very good for my island! Yes, Polyphemus have nice island now, good for sheepies!"

He laughed, booming, and stomped off.

The other huge guys looked at him like he was crazy.

"But…Polyphemus…" one of them started. "What about the…"

"Polyphemus help the little ones who give me Fleece," he boomed. "Give them…ah…free ride! Yes, hah. Free ride."

"What?" I asked.

The nearest guy growled at me. "Shut your face when great Polyphemus speaks, demigod."

Polyphemus nodded. "Head start, you say? Giving you chance. Go."

"Is he serious?" Castor whispered. Pollux shrugged.

"Ten minutes," the giant man boomed. "Then we eat you."

We took off running.

* * *

 **Hey hey hey! I see that there were people who read this! To you: kudos. And madwamoose reviewed! To you: more kudos. And blue cookies: (::) (::) (::)**

 **Anyhoo, I know. I'm so nice. No cliffhangers here, huh? Anyway, if you liked it, click on that there box at the bottom of the page and write me a message! Doesn't have to be long, people. Just a simple 'Loved your story' or 'Jake, you're the best' or even 'Are you actually Uncle Rick writing fanfic?' Cause something like that will make my day. (And if you actually just write those exact things, word for word, I will find you. And haunt your dreams.)**

 **Until next time, my good people! Farewell!**


	3. Chapter 3

**So, this chapter nudged the rating into T. Sorry for all you prudes out there. Had to do it. Didn't want to have to lose this fic.**

* * *

We made it eight minutes before the crazy ladies showed up. We had gotten into a bit of a gully, where we couldn't see the gang. But before I could point out that this meant that they could just surround us without us knowing, we heard some singing.

A girl dropped from a tree in front of us. "Run!" she hissed. "Demigods, run!"

Then she…actually, I don't know what she did. Shot back up into the tree?

Anyway, we tried to run. We really did. But you ask three ten year olds to run eight solid minutes for their life, they're tired. Okay?

Then the singing people came out through a bunch of tall grass. My first thought: ooh, sexay. Second thought: definitely run.

At first glance, they seemed just like any normal high school/college age girls. But when you actually looked at them, they seemed…insane.

They had ridiculously long fingernails, almost like claws. Their eyes were bloodshot and wide rimmed. They just seemed _off_.

When they saw us, they shrieked and hooted, sprinting towards us. Then the leader stopped and asked Pollux, "Are you Dionysus?"

"Am I who now?" he asked, shaking.

"My lord Dionysus."

"Um, no, but actually, he's my—"

Before he could say _dad_ , the whole group growled. "Sacrifice!" they said in chorus.

"Wait!" Pollux tried, but they charged at us.

I grabbed the twins by the shoulders, since they were frozen with fear, and tried to drag them away.

Then I felt a tug in my stomach, and all of a sudden…bam! We were somewhere else.

"What just happened?" I asked, looking around. We were in a totally different environment. It was grassy and green. A cool wind blew through, as opposed to the plains of California before. There were a few trees behind us, making a forest, and basically it was just a nicer and more alive place then where we'd been. No way had we walked here.

"Maybe…this is Colorado!" Castor said excitedly. "I've been to Colorado once. It was nice like this!"

"What about Mark?" I asked.

"I don't know if Mark's been here?" Castor answered. "But he fell off the ram."

I ground my teeth. "Yes, that's what I'm saying. Is he okay?"

"Well, he's a demigod, and our brother, so probably he is," Pollux said.

Just then a shimmering image appeared in the air next to us.

"Hello," someone said from the rainbow. Then a man appeared in the mist. It was…Mark?

"Mark!" I said. "How'd you get here so fast? Where are we?"

"Chill," he said, grinning. "No, I'm not there with you. This is called an Iris Message. You throw a drachma into a rainbow, pray to Iris, and you can talk like this to anyone anywhere. It's like a freaking expensive FaceTime."

"But…" I said. "That's not possible."

"It's not possible that you just teleported across a state, kiddo," he said. "But you did and it is."

"I did that?" I asked. "How?"

"Don't ask me," he said, putting his hands up. "Son of Dionysus here. Don't know nothin' you Hermes kids' powers. Heh, but that was a nice bit of escapery you put on right there. Well done. You're keeping my bros safe, I see…" he waved at the twins. "Hey, guys."

They waved back. "Are you okay?" Castor asked.

"Fit as a slightly beat up fiddle," he declared. "I could be better. Definitely been worse. But, and here's the important part, I barely know where the Hades you kids are. Iris had pity on me after five drachma and let me find you without a direct location. And only then after I'd threatened to report her to dad."

The image shimmered and a woman appeared. "Shut up, Mark," she said. Then it went back to Mark's face.

"Who was _that_?" Pollux asked.

"That was m'dear friend Fleecy," he said. "She's really the one who runs the thing. Iris doesn't do much. But that's a huge secret and if you tell anyone she might smother you."

"Okay…" I began. "What should we do now, Mark?"

"I would say find the Bacchanals," he said. "But you been there, done that, and it _almost_ got you killed. Here's a tip, bud. Next time someone asks you if you're dad, just say you're his son. Bacchanals don't listen too well, huh?"

"Okay," Pollux answered. "Got it."

"Well, anyway," Mark said, grinning hugely, "there're a bunch of angry monsters about ten minutes away from me, so gotta go. Oh: how's the ram? Lord Zeus loaned him to me for just three hours. Said he'd have someone's hide if he didn't get it back. Take good care of him. He likes apples."

The image disappeared.

"Zeus is gonna be very very angry with Mark," Pollux said solemnly.

Thunder rumbled.

"Guys, sounds like we're gonna be in for a rainstorm," I said. "Let's go."

"No, no, it just happens when I say Zeus," Pollux insisted. "Look: Zeus."

Thunder rumbled.

He chuckled. "Zeus Zeus Zeusy Zeus."

A crack of lightning. More thunder.

He laughed. "Watch this. Zeus is a—"

Castor tackled him to the ground. "You _idiot_ ," he said. "If Zeus gets mad he'll smite us! Shut _up_!"

Pollux shrugged. "Fine."

"Come on, Castor," I said. "I'm tired."

"We're all tired, General Jonah," Castor grumbled. "Let's just sleep here."

It was rather late. We slept.

* * *

When I woke up, the twins were gone.

I rubbed my eyes, wondering why I was so sore. Then I felt a rock beneath my back. I shot up, remembering everything from the day before. Then I saw that Castor and Pollux were gone.

"Castor!" I yelled, panicking. "Pollux! Guys! Where are you!"

No sound. Nothing.

"Come back!" I yelled.

Nothing. Then I heard, very faint, a screech.

I shot towards the noise. As I got closer to where it had come from, I heard laughter and singing.

There was a rock cave in a hillside. The noises were coming from there.

I ran inside. And there, sitting on rock thrones, with grapes in their hands and wreaths on their heads, with guys dancing around them and singing, were Castor and Pollux.

"Hello?" I said. "What's going on?"

"Hi, Jonah," Castor said. "These are satyrs. They said they serve us cause of our dad."

"So they gave you grapes," I said.

"Yeah, and wine," Pollux said.

" _Wine_?"

"Yeah, but I don't drink yet," Pollux laughed.

"Good thing," Castor said, nudging him. "If you did, you couldn't hold it for long."

They both started laughing.

I rolled my eyes. "Guys, who are these people?"

"They're the woodland creatures," Pollux laughed. "I don't know where they came from, but when we woke up we were here and they were giving us stuff. They're really nice. They said since our dad is Dionysus, they serve us."

One of the guys offered Pollux some grapes. He took one and popped it in his mouth. Then he threw one at me. "Come on, Jonah," he said. "Eat!"

I had a few grapes, but I wasn't sure why these people would do all this for Castor and Pollux. I was a bit suspicious, to tell the truth, and I didn't know what to do if they went evil.

"Guys, let's go," I kept saying, but they wanted to stay forever. (Their words.)

Finally everything wore down. The satyrs carried the boys back to where we had slept. But when they saw that we didn't have supplies, they set them down and asked us where we wanted to go.

"Ask him, he's the navigator," Castor said, pointing at me.

The satyrs turned to me expectantly.

"Um, we want to go to New York. Camp Half-Blood?"

One of the satyrs stepped forward. "I will help you get there," he said. "I will first take you to Leneus, who will help you."

"Sounds good," Pollux said.

The satyr stepped forward, and reached out, to do what I never knew.

Because all of a sudden an arrow flew through the air, right between us, and a hunting horn sounded.

The satyr yelped and scrambled backwards. The rest of the satyrs screamed and fled. Through the trees behind us, white wolves came, howling and barking.

Then behind them, came sprinting some people. All girls.

The one in the lead had a silver kind of a princess crown on her head. "Who art thou?" she asked.

"What?" Pollux asked.

"Who art thou, boy?" she asked impatiently. "So I may report thy names and have done with thee."

"Um…I'm Castor. He's Pollux. And he's Jonah."

"Castor and Pollux?' she asked, sounding surprised. "Truly thou art?"

"Um…yeah?"

The rest of the girls ringed around us.

Then, in a flash of light, a last girl appeared. She seemed like she was glowing, as if from moonlight. The rest of the girls saluted her.

"Zoë," she said. "Peace."

"These boys are Pollux—"

"Castor, and Jonah," the girl said. "I heard. Thank you, Zoë. I will not need you here any more."

Zoë nodded and stood back. The girl turned to us.

"Boys," she said, spitting the word like it was a bad thing. "What are you doing with the satyrs?"

"They were serving me, cause my dad is Dionysus," Pollux said proudly. "What are _you_ guys doing here?"

"Silence, boy," Zoë started, but the girl cut her off.

"It's alright, Zoë. "Don't forget these are both boys and young. Forgive their stupidity."

"Yes, my lady."

"So, you are sons of Dionysus," the girl said to us. "And you are a son of…Hermes. I sense your father's knack for mischief and excuses."

She smiled slightly. "And now you are here. In Colorado. These are some of my favorite hunting grounds."

"What are you going to do…?" I started to say, but Zoë knocked me on the back of the head.

"Shut your mouth when Lady Artemis is talking," she said.

"Peace, Zoë," Artemis said. "He knows nothing of respect. It comes from his father. Anyway, boy," she said to me. "We are going to either turn you into targets, turn you into deer, or help you find your way to that Camp."

"What should we do?" she asked the rest of the girls.

They started shouting their opinions. Targets, some shouted. Deer, the others said. Sadly, not one of them voted for helping us.

Artemis shrugged. "We apparently have a split decision. So it is down to me to vote. But, since a goddess' vote counts for forty-five, and there are only forty-four of you, anything I say will happen."

One of them raised their hand. "Yes, Phoebe," Artemis said.

"The last time we voted, you said your vote counted for thirty-nine," Phoebe protested.

"Yes, well, we only had thirty-eight Hunters with us," Artemis smirked. The Hunters groaned.

"And my decision is this: we have no right to kill them, since we came upon them, not the other way around," she said. "And so I vote that we help them to Camp."

Zoë stepped forward again. "My lady," she said. "Need I remind thee what males would do, three of them, traveling with forty-four maidens? They would hurt us."

"No, they wouldn't," Artemis said. "I hope I've trained you well enough to be able to kill three unarmed ten year olds."

Zoë frowned. "It would be a weakening of our code."

"My code," Artemis reminded her.

Zoë shrugged. "Well, don't blame me when we all wake up with our throats slit."

"Or something else," a Hunter called out. They all broke into laughter.

"Silence," Artemis said, though she had smiled at that, (although I don't know what was so funny). "They are traveling with us and that is final."

"Yes, milady," the Hunters chorused.

And that's how we came to be traveling with the Hunters.

* * *

 **Aaand that's a wrap. How was it? Good? Bad? Anything you'd like in the next chapter? Tell me. Put some words in that little box at the bottom of the page and send it in. Thanks to madwamoose for your review. Farewell, my good people!**


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